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Seljuk Stone Along the Kızılırmak, Çeşnigir Bridge and the Kesikköprü Caravanserai
Cultural

Seljuk Stone Along the Kızılırmak, Çeşnigir Bridge and the Kesikköprü Caravanserai

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The Kızılırmak flows north to the southeast of Ankara, drawing the eastern boundary of the Bala district. On this bank two Seljuk bridges from the 13th century, a Hittite mound and a caravanserai tell where and how the old caravan routes of Anatolia crossed the river.

Bala, Ankara
Cultural
Radar Editör
September 30, 2026

About Trip

The Kızılırmak flows north to the southeast of Ankara, drawing the eastern boundary of the Bala district. On this bank two Seljuk bridges from the 13th century, a Hittite mound and a caravanserai tell where and how the old caravan routes of Anatolia crossed the river. Çeşnigir Bridge, just east of Bala in the Karakeçili district of Kırıkkale, crosses the Kızılırmak on twelve arches; the mound of Büklükale beside it shows that this same crossing has been in use since the Bronze Age. In Bala's Kesikköprü neighbourhood the river turns into the lake of the dam that bears its name. The Cacabey Han of 1268, known as the Kesikköprü Caravanserai, stands about a hundred kilometres up the same river, in the village of the same name south of Kırşehir, at the head of the thirteen-arched Kesik Köprü. This article first describes the Bala bank, then the han upriver; fitting the two into one day means a long drive, and for most travellers Çeşnigir and the Kesikköprü lake make one day, while the han on the Kırşehir side is a separate journey.

Getting there

According to the Ankara Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the Bala district centre lies 69 kilometres south of the city at 1,350 metres; in the words of Bala Municipality, you take the Konya road past Gölbaşı and turn towards Bala at the Beynam Forests sign. There are two ways from Ankara to Çeşnigir Bridge: either east through Bala on the roads that drop down to the river, or from the Kırıkkale direction to Karakeçili. According to Wikipedia, Karakeçili is 95 kilometres from Ankara and 35 from Kırıkkale; the district borders Bala to the south and the bridge is near its village of Köprüköy. The Kesikköprü Dam, according to the Directorate of Culture and Tourism, is 40 kilometres from the Bala centre and 110 from Ankara; the Ankara Governorate writes that the state road passing through the district centre reaches the shore of the dam. Moving between these points by public transport within a day is not practical; go with your own car and fill up with fuel in the district centres, since settlement along the river is sparse.

Çeşnigir Bridge

The bridge crosses the Kızılırmak between Karakeçili and Köprüköy, which belongs to Keskin. According to Wikipedia its construction date is not known for certain; from its architecture it is thought to belong to the 13th century, the Anatolian Seljuk period. The Culture Portal passes on a tradition that Yavuz Sultan Selim had the bridge rebuilt by Mimar Sinan before his Egyptian campaign. According to another tradition, Timur's army crossed here in 1402 on its way to the Battle of Ankara; both accounts stand in the sources as tradition, not as established fact. The cut-stone bridge is 110 metres long and 6 metres wide and rests on solid foundations on rocky ground. It has twelve arches in all: three are visible above the water, nine were left beneath the water raised by the Kapulukaya Dam; the central span is 18.6 metres. The bridge's most distinctive feature is the incline at its middle; the arches rising from both sides to meet in the centre give the silhouette a curve like a back. The bridge was open to vehicle traffic until 1989; when the dam lake left its piers under water it was closed to vehicles, it was restored by the Highways Directorate in 2010 and today it is open only to visitors on foot. As you walk across, look at the river that has grown still as a lake, at the clusters of rounded rock on the bank and at the village on the opposite slope; the morning light reflects the arches in the water. There is little shade around and the summer midday is very hot; do not go into the water, as the depth and the bottom of a dam lake cannot be judged from the shore.

Büklükale, the mound beside the bridge

Just north of the bridge, beside Köprüköy, rises the mound of Büklükale. According to Wikipedia, the site of some 30 hectares was continuously settled from the Early Bronze Age to the Ottoman period; in the Middle and Late Bronze Age it was an important Hittite settlement. The Swiss Hittitologist Emil Forrer visited it in 1926; the Japanese archaeologist Sachihiro Omura carried out surface surveys in 1991 and 2006, and since 2009 the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology, together with Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, has been excavating under the direction of Kimiyoshi Matsumura. The excavations have brought to light cuneiform tablets in Hittite and Hurrian, city walls with several building phases and a monumental building with cyclopean walls on the acropolis; Büklükale is regarded as the westernmost site in Anatolia where cuneiform tablets have been found. According to the same source, the remains of a Roman bridge can also be seen beneath the Seljuk bridge. So this crossing was used at the same spot from the Bronze Age to Rome, from the Seljuks to the Ottomans; caravans, armies and merchants always crossed the river here. The mound is an active excavation site; during the digging season the trenches are off limits, and do not take photographs without asking the team's permission. The view from the top of the mound over the bridge and the valley is the finest of the trip.

Bala and the Kesikköprü lake

Bala is a wide steppe district south of Ankara, built on the Kartal Plateau at 1,313 metres according to Wikipedia. According to the Ankara Governorate, the settlement was first called Kartaltepe, then, with the migrants who came from the Caucasus after the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878, Hamidiye, and later Bala; the history published by Bala Municipality, on the other hand, tells that the district was founded in 1690-1691 by Şeyh Ali Mirza of the Tabanlı tribe and settled by the Bozulus Turkmens. The district became a sub-district in 1887. The Kızılırmak draws the district's eastern boundary, and in Bala's Kesikköprü neighbourhood, 100 kilometres southeast of Ankara according to Wikipedia, the Kesikköprü Dam, built over the river between 1959 and 1966, rises. The dam is of rock and earth fill; it is 49.1 metres high, its lake covers 6.5 square kilometres and holds 95 million cubic metres; its 76-megawatt plant generates about 250 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year and irrigates 11,860 hectares of farmland. According to ASKİ, since 2009 it has also been connected to Ankara's drinking water system by three pipelines of 128 kilometres each. Bala Municipality presents the lakeshore as a recreation area: the lake reaches a depth of 29 metres, the water temperature in July is around 18 degrees, bird species not met in forests are seen on the shore; swimming, windsurfing, water skiing and diving are possible. The Directorate of Culture and Tourism also lists picnicking, swimming and boat trips, and the youth camps of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. Trees stand only in a small section; the municipality recommends bringing a sun umbrella. Do not let the name Kesikköprü send you looking for a historic bridge in this neighbourhood; the Kesikköprü with the caravanserai and the thirteen-arched Seljuk bridge is far up the same river, in Kırşehir.

The Kesikköprü Caravanserai upriver

According to the Kırşehir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the Kesik Köprü Caravanserai stands 18-23 kilometres south of Kırşehir, inside today's village of Kesikköprü and beside the Kesik Köprü, one of the most famous of the Anatolian Seljuk bridges. According to Wikipedia the village belongs to the central district of Kırşehir, stands at 1,020 metres and has carried the same name since 1698; its population in 2022 was 51. The building, also known as the Cacabey Caravanserai, was commissioned by Nureddin Cebrail bin Caca, the emir of Kırşehir; the four-line inscription on the portal of the covered section says that the han was built in the month of Muharrem of the year 667 of the Hijra, that is in 1268, in the name of Sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev bin Kılıçarslan. In some places the Kırşehir sources also give the dates 1248 and 1251; the inscription gives 1268 and this article keeps to it. The han is of the mixed plan type of Anatolian Seljuk caravanserais: an open courtyard and behind it a covered section. The south-facing courtyard portal projects from the middle of the facade with its mass; the stones of its depressed arch are decorated with carved and relief geometric motifs, the two sides of the arch with rosettes, and there are round half-columns at the outer edges of the frame. The corniced frame in the tympanum shows where the inscription was, but that inscription is lost. From the portal a long vaulted passage opens into the courtyard; through a door on the west of the passage you enter the han's mescit, whose large stone mihrab and the lamp niches on either side of it bear geometric ornament. East of the portal is the innkeeper's room, whose door faces the courtyard. On the portal of the covered section two lion reliefs catch the eye. Inside, ten stone piers in five rows separate three naves; the central nave is higher than the sides, the roofs are vaulted, and twelve pointed arches rest on the piers. The building is of finely cut stone; only the upper levels of the vaults are of rubble. On the outer walls there are four-cornered buttress towers and simple hollowed-stone gargoyles. The han was restored by the General Directorate of Foundations in 1989 and, according to the Turkey Tourism Encyclopaedia, is open to visitors; check the entry conditions and hours with the Kırşehir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.

The Kesik Köprü itself

Right beside the han, the Kesik Köprü crosses the Kızılırmak on thirteen arches; according to the Culture Portal it lies 20 kilometres south of Kırşehir on the Kırşehir-Konya road. Its inscription says the bridge was built in 646 of the Hijra, that is in 1248, in the time of Keykavus son of Keyhüsrev, by the Atabeg İzzeddin Muhammed; according to the Kırşehir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, travellers coming from İzmir who wanted to reach Sivas and Erzurum by way of Tokat crossed this bridge. Its name comes from the 17th and 18th centuries, when bandits cut the caravan routes on the bridge. The arches of the pointed-arched bridge on the caravanserai side are wider and higher than those on the other side, because the river's main channel runs close to this bank. The bridge has been repaired many times and stands sound today; it is recorded, however, that in the repairs other stone was used instead of the original limestone and that most of the arches have lost their old height. Its three-line inscription is known to have been under the river's waters in 1953; on the Aksaray side there is an open-air prayer place. The han and the bridge are two parts of the same caravan road: the traveller crossed the bridge and spent the night in the han's courtyard. Between Bala's Kesikköprü neighbourhood and Kırşehir's Kesikköprü village there are about 85 kilometres as the crow flies; to reach the han from Ankara you drive towards Kırşehir and drop down south of the city. Anyone who wants to fit this into the same day as Çeşnigir must set out early; most travellers add the han to a journey towards Kırşehir and Cappadocia.

Season and time of day

On the steppe the summer is harsh and the winter cold. April to June and September to October are the best times to see the bridges and the mound; in spring the riverbank is green, in autumn the light is soft. The Kesikköprü lake is preferred for swimming in July and August; take the lack of shade into account. Choose the morning light for Çeşnigir and the afternoon for the han's portal; the south-facing facade is lit at that hour. In the winter months the wind around the dam lake is fierce and the shore road can ice over.

Practical notes

  • Çeşnigir Bridge is open only to pedestrians; do not drive onto the bridge.
  • Büklükale is an active excavation site; do not enter the trenches and do not take photographs without the team's permission.
  • There may be no lifeguard when swimming in the Kesikköprü lake; do not go beyond the areas marked by the municipality.
  • There is little shade at the dam lake; bring an umbrella, a hat and plenty of water.
  • Check the han's visiting hours and the excavation seasons with the relevant provincial directorates before you go.
  • Settlement between Bala and Kırşehir is sparse; fill up with fuel and water in the district centres.

Sources

Location - Seljuk Stone Along the Kızılırmak, Çeşnigir Bridge and the Kesikköprü Caravanserai

Trip Info
CityBala, Ankara
TypeCultural
DateSeptember 30, 2026
SourceRadar Editör
Radar TürkiyeAuthorRadar TürkiyeVisit SourceGet Directions